Homeland Security Choice Warned, Confirmed

Senators Send Messages On Funding, Strategy Before Unanimous Approval

February 16, 2005|By DAVID LIGHTMAN; Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON — The Senate unanimously confirmed federal Judge Michael Chertoff as secretary of homeland security on Tuesday, but only after a two-day series of messages and warnings that his agency will be scrutinized closely.

The senators' concerns ranged from the local -- Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman pushed for assurances that Chertoff would pay more attention to smaller states -- to the broader issue of whether the White House has a coherent homeland security strategy.

Senators began lobbing their questions at Chertoff's Feb. 2 confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and the barrage continued during floor debate Monday and Tuesday.

Lieberman, the committee's top Democrat, made sure at the hearing that Chertoff knew how angry he was about New Haven's loss last year of an anticipated $10 million designed to protect its harbor.

Connecticut's other U.S. senator, Christopher J. Dodd, criticized the White House Tuesday for running the homeland security agency with a ``tin cup'' budget. Others also raised concerns about funding and about the need for a sound security strategy.

In more pointed comments, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., reiterated his insistence that the White House turn over a May 2004 FBI memo expressing Justice Department officials' concerns about Defense Department interrogation practices. Levin first made the demand during Chertoff's hearing earlier this month.

Chertoff, 51, was head of the Justice Department's criminal division at the time. He has said he did not attend a meeting about the concerns and was unaware of what the memo says. The administration has refused to disclose who was at the meeting or to turn over the memo to Congress. Chertoff also has denied knowing of any interrogation methods that broke laws against torture.

Still, senators wanted to know who was involved. ``I truly resent the withholding of the names,'' Lieberman said Monday.

``Sen. Levin has raised a very important point that transcends this nomination,'' Dodd said Tuesday. ``It transcends party. It has to do with the Constitution and the legislative branch.''

But Chertoff was approved 98-0, because, as Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said: ``We have to take Judge Chertoff at his word'' about not having any role in prisoner interrogation policies or knowledge about the memo.

The administration's penchant for secrecy, as well as concerns about the effectiveness of the Department of Homeland Security, were reasons Chertoff endured some of the same unusual scrutiny as two other Bush nominees, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

But Chertoff did not spark the outright anger that the other two did during their confirmation proceedings.

With a national audience able to watch on C-SPAN2, and all the comments from the hearings and the debate available on the Internet and in the Congressional Record, senators warned Chertoff about a host of concerns.

Many of the messages were local. On Feb. 2, for example, Lieberman quizzed Chertoff about the lack of harbor-protection money for New Haven. The December homeland security decision to leave out money for the harbor, a key storage point for the Northeast's second-largest heating oil reserve, stunned state officials.

Lieberman, the top Democrat on the committee, said the new secretary should take a ``second look'' at the formula used to make the New Haven decision.

``The smallness of the size of a community ought not to eliminate it, assuming it also has risk factors included in it,'' he said. ``So my question is, will you take another look at the formula?''

``Yes,'' Chertoff said.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said during debate on Monday that while the department did well at first handling emergencies arising out of this summer's Florida hurricanes, ``I hear on a daily basis from communities across our state that are having problems getting reimbursed for debris removal.''

Sen. Charles H. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday that the U.S. border with Canada ``gets scant attention compared to the border with Mexico.''

Lieberman told his Senate colleagues that ``the lack of a focused, long-term homeland security strategy is one of the greatest omissions thus far with this department.''

A series of reports -- most recently one released this week by Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th District -- also question whether there is a cogent homeland security strategy and, if so, whether it's being properly implemented.

The Government Accountability Office told Shays, chairman of the House national security subcommittee, that two years after President Bush issued his call for a national strategy, the country still faced ``significant challenges'' in carrying it out.

Collins said she hoped all the rhetoric Chertoff has heard has sunk in.

``I think he understands fully what we're saying,'' she said. ``And you can be sure we'll continue to talk to him about all of this.''